“Taffy.” Politically speaking it feels as if no matter what side you might be on, a whole lot of our public representatives have been sucked into what I call “taffy.” And let me tell you folks, it feels really, really sticky, positively gooey, and from where I’m sitting it only looks like it’s going to get a whole lot worse.

Now call me Pollyanna if you want, probably one of my character defects, but I think it might, and I said might not can or will, be possible to get partially, or maybe just a tiny bit unstuck here.

First of all, I am going to take it as a given, that people don’t get involved in political office or city boards and committees or become political activists unless they really care about the City of Newburyport, Massachusetts. I know, I know, I know, local politicians and committee and board members want power and control, it’s all about ego, yada, yada, yada. Well, I’m not that stupid, of course some of that exists, maybe a whole lot of that exists. But let’s just say there is a good dose of altruism, on no matter what side of the issue you might be on, simply because it’s just not worth all the time and effort and a lot of times, let’s face it, the aggravation.

I can hear the screams from cyper-space…Nooooooooo. Pollyanna, Boooooo!!

Well, hear me out. This what I think, oh you out there in web-land. No matter what political side you are on, we’ve all been invited to some sort of fight. And, one of my favorite saying is, “you don’t have to go to every fight you’re invited to.” I just love that.

So what I’m saying is don’t go. Don’t go to whatever fight you’ve been invited to. There’s nothing more frustrating to the person who’s invited you to the fight than for you not to show up. And not showing up to a fight can actually be kind of fun, because it’s your choice. You can choose to act, not to react.

When you find that you just want to throttle whoever, and that little itty-bitty-committee is going on in your head. And the itty-bitty-committee is adding more members and getting bigger and bigger, and louder and louder–stop. Think. Go and do something good for yourself. Go and do something fun for your family, your friends. Go and buy yourself your favorite candy and eat it and make a conscious choice not to shove it in the face of someone who is driving you politically crazy. Especially if that some one happens to be me!

And me, I’m going to go out and get myself a Hershey’s chocolate bar, no nuts. And I’m going to eat the whole thing along with my favorite cup of tea.

Mary Eaton, Newburyport